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Do Arsenal fans NOW believe Wenger on Giroud?

I am sure that there was a large portion of Arsenal fans who did not really know who Olivier Giroud was when Arsene Wenger signed him almost three years ago. And even though Wenger stated that the French striker was not meant as a direct replacement for Robin van Persie, that was the criteria by which he was judged and found wanting.

But you cannot argue with the stats and those show that Giroud has got better and better since coming to north London. Now many of us are left wondering how much closer (or even ahead) of the league leaders Chelsea we would be now if Giroud had not missed three months with a broken leg.

His improvement and current form have certainly proved the manager right for signing him in the first place and Wenger has suggested that Giroud is now right up there with the best strikers in the league and even thinks that we have not seen the best of the late blooming 29-year old yet, as an Arsenal.com report explains.

Wenger said, “He is a player who has a good mental strength because at 22 he was playing in division three. Now he plays at Arsenal. There is still room for improvement for him.

“He benefits from the fact that he has not started a few games. He has also improved his technical game. Technically he is a much better player and that’s why he scores goals.

“His touch, his link play, his finishing [has all improved]. He takes some images from when he arrived in England and today he is a better player.

“I think [he is one of the best strikers around] because he scores the goals, has a presence and he’s a fighter as well. Above all he is a team player – he fights for the team.”

There are still plenty of doubters in the media and among his own Arsenal fans, but Giroud´s figures are amazing, as is his influence on our results. If you still doubt Wenger´s claim that Giroud belongs with the league´s top strikers like Rooney, Aguero, Costa and Kane, maybe this little stats comparison from Squawka.com will convince you.

Anyways, I believe I speak on behalf of every Arsenal supporter when saying that Giroud has silenced all his critics by his recent displays. He’s in tremendous form.

I’ve noticed something in his game: he usually scores from the more difficult chances and occasionally misses on the easier ones. Just needs to be more ruthless with the ‘easier’ chances and he can finish the season with +25 goals. He’s now on 17 so he got time.

Yes, I do still believe there are better pure strikers out there. But this is not the system we are playing and Giroud is more than just a striker. But, having said that, if Oli had not missed 3 months and was also our penalty taker, I’m pretty sure he’d be the top scorer in the league right now, so even without being “just the guy up top who bangs in the goals” he’s doing the business so let’s let’s give credit where credit is due.

yeah he seems to be getting in the goals…plus suits our current style of play well..sure- he’s not the fastest on the field, but he makes use of his other talents (good link up play, sublime 1,2s/flicks, strong in the air, good positional play, ability to score, good defensive qualities, able to draw defenders, presses on opposition keepers/defenders)…

For 10 mill Giroud is very good value.
It is really strange how Arsenall
has struggled to find
top class strikers in recent years.
Adebayor Park Bendtner Chamak Vela
Sanogo Wellbeck Arshavin Girvinho Podoski Campbell
all mega failures. Then when RVP got 37 goals he was
sold to a team who won the premiership the next season!!!

David, david, david… Still can’t tell if you’re serious.
Adeboy?? seriously.. the guy was a beast while at Arsenal. The season after Henry left he scored 30 goals when we were crippled with injuries…
In what possible world is Arshavin a striker?
Have you been following Vela at all? Hardly a failure..
Campbell, Sanogo, Welbeck? dude.. how can they be labelled a failure when their careers have barely begun? Especially on an article about a very late bloomer who took a few seasons to establish himself in the EPL.

Love Giroud’s evolution but he needs to do it consistently over a season or two to fully convince me. Costa and Aguero both have had injury problems of their own and have spent extensive stints out though not as much as Giroud to be fair.

The feeling I always get from Aguero and Costa is that they’re always dangerous regardless of the opponent and both are clinical. Giroud has become a solid all around scorer but I still don’t get the sense of an imminent threat from him.

As for someone like Kane, think he’s surprised just about everyone, not something anyone could see coming

But heres the thing truegunner12 – whatever people’s “feelings” are about how clinical every other striker is they pretty much all (barring those freaks Messi/Ronaldo) have career goals/game ratios of between 0.4-0.6. If you listened to some folk you would be forgiven if you thought all these other big names were knocking in a couple of goals every game and never missing. And I don’t want to call you out on this but can you list Costa’s big game, decisive goals this year (“always dangerous regardless of the opponent…”).

Sure. Netted the first and last goal at Goodison Park, Chelsea won 6 3. Netted the winner at Anfield Chelsea win 2 1. Netted the winner when we played Chelsea earlier at Stamford Bridge. He was injured and didn’t play vs United. Same vs Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, scored first in the reverse fixture but Kane ripped Cahill a new one who hasn’t been the same since. Scored the winner in the league Cup final. Was shackled in the first leg vs City at the Etihad and didn’t play in the reverse fixture as he was suspended. Scored in Chelsea’s draw with Southampton. The rest of big games for Chelsea are still to come.

Giroud by comparison scored when we drew at Anfield putting us ahead. Scored at Goodison Park. Scored the winner at the Etihad. Missed a few chances in the NLD at White Hart Lane and was injured in the reverse fixture at the Emirates. Scored in the United fixture at the Emirates. Was out of both fixtures vs Southampton as well as the fixture at Stamford Bridge.

As I said before, Giroud is in a state of evolution, which I have given him praise for. But most of Giroud’s goals have come in non – pressure matches. Giroud is a 20 goals a season striker in my opinion. But how many of those goals will be of significance, vs top flight opposition or in a high pressure scenario is my main critique of Giroud.

Of Costa’s goals they were all scored to either put his team in the lead, finish off opposition or win matches. Of Giroud’s goals they came when we were either losing by a 2 – 0 margin or when we were already ahead. The lone exception to the rule n the comparison is when we went ahead at Anfield.

The glut of his goals have come in our hot streak recently, but in this time we’ve played teams that average about 14th in the table. The lone tought outfit was Spurs which we lost. That is why I reserve judgement.

I did say decisive big game goals. I’ll give you the Anfield one but by my reckoning that is the only true winner he has scored. A brace in a 6 goal trouncing of a struggling Everton doesn’t come in to that category. He didn’t net the winner against us – he scored a late second for a 2-0 win. Ditto LC final. None in Europe as well.

If your definition is goals that “put your team in the lead, finish off opposition or win matches” then pretty much all of Giroud’s goals come in to that category. If you want to use Everton as an example for Costa then Giroud’s goals against them secured 4 points in 2 games. If you use the win against us with Costa scoring the 2nd in a 2-0 win then Giroud has done the same against City.

As you said both us and Chelsea still have some of their big games left – lets see what happens in them.

The Everton analysis isn’t correct because Goodison Park is a notoriously difficult fixture for several clubs, Everton’s struggles aren’t home based, it’s their away form that is an issue. Of last year’s top 6 only Chelsea came away with a win. City, Liverpool and us all got draws. With United Tottenham and Southampton still to play them. We barely escaped with a point the week before as Everton completely ran out of steam. At the moment in big matches at home Everton have a very similar record to us. Everton has 1 L 2 D. We have 1 W 1 L 2 D. Their away form in big matches is also similar. We both lost to Tottenham, Southampton and Chelsea and drew with Liverpool, the only difference is they lost to City whereas we won and they lost to United but we haven’t played yet. I excluded Everton away because that is where they struggle generally. Moreover Costa was suspended for the fixture.

As for decisive big goals retrospectively I agree with you on the Giroud points, as his goal killed the game as a contest vs City. The one at Goodison Park I gave him credit for. As well as the one at Anfield. But that’s it as far as big goals go for Giroud. The entire list of goals I listed for Costa were big goals.

I think we can humorously agree that given the way Chelsea’s match at Goodison Park was going no one would have been surprised to see Everton claw it back, especially as we were a mere few matches into the season. But Costa’s goals ended the game as a contest, Anfield, LCF, us at Stamford Bridge so on so forth.

It’s for the same reason Drogba was herealded as one of the great strikers in the EPL of the last decade. He only had 1 season of his 8 where he cored more than 16 EPL goals. But he was a master of important big goals as I’m sure we’ve all been made painfully aware repeatedly.

However fairly that isn’t something I can hold against Giroud. He hasn’t played in all our big games and the ones he has he has made a difference so fair play to him. However it isn’t something I can merit him with either. You’re comparing Costa and Aguero to Giroud (not you specifically just a generalization), Giroud has to do this at the highest level consistently before we can lump him in with the aforementioned 2. The same is applicable for the likes of Kane.

The real question is, do you consider Giroud to be the striker Arsenal need to lead Arsenal to an EPL title?

So now everybody has forgotten that Ollie couldn´t score a single goal at home against Monaco when he had at least 5 good chances. Do not get me wrong, he is in great form at the moment, but usually he needs 4-5 chances/game to score 1 goal, more deadlier finisher scores 1,5-2 goals/game (Aguero, Costa, even Kane) for the chances created by his team mates.

O.Giroud has to be appreciated and respected for his current form and proper service provision. He has improved a lot since his return from injury. At the moment, I don’t think that we can get an inform and multipurpose striker like him.

Today in the news there is a change coming up in the number of non home grown players we can have. The FA wants to reduce is gradually from 17 to 13. Also they want to change the home grown rules whereby players only qualify if the played for 3 years up to the age of 18 in England.

That last rule if not implemented gradually would mean Coquelin, Szczesny, Zelalem, Gnabry, Bellerin & Martinez would not qualify as homegrown anymore. I have not read how this rule would be implemented but it will have massive changes.

1. Our academy will need to stock more English players than foreign players.
2. We need to give more chances to academy players in the first team. Dan Crowley.
3. English academy players will go more on loan after they reach 18 to gain experience, these loan spells can now be at teams abroad. Like Chelsea does with Vitesse in Holland.
4. Prices of home grown players will go through the roof for a while until more home grown players come through.
5. We need to keep Walcott, Wilshere & Jenkinson
6. Wellbeck and Chambers were good signings.
7. We will sell players like Podolski, Campbell, Silva, Sanogo (fringe players that take up valuable Non Home Grown slots).

Arsenal is better placed than City, Chelsea and Spurs when it comes to home grown players. City will need to overhaul their first team which will be costly and they will need to start playing more of their academy players. This could bring a dip to City as also FFP will even make it harder to invest insane amounts of money.

Chelsea have got to buy more homegrown too and they have the largest amount of players in their academy and out on loan. Some of their loan players may qualify as homegrown.

Wenger’s idea of English core is great and could help us in the coming years and maybe even help us winging the EPL.

Good post. Think there are a few legal battles looming with the Premier League before this happens. Perhaps Wenger should write to Greg Dyke and see if we can enter an all-English Arsenal B team in to the league:

i will never believe another word that wenger says . up to ten years ago he was as honest as they come , then he discovered his losing mentality and began to lie through his teeth . i think giroud is playing out of his skin , boxing above his weight in fact . but he is light years away from being an arsenal style/class striker , light years i say .